Butte turnout pegged at 26.8 percent

Ballot numbers are still being counted but low turnout for the June primary may barely shift the current numbers.

According to Clerk- Recorder Candace Grubbs, there are still 9,115 ballots remaining unprocessed. In a phone interview, she said that when the numbers were figured up, the votes reflected a little more than 26.8 percent of registered voters, which is not very good. "We hoped for a lot more," Grubbs said. Because of the low numbers, Grubbs said this election was "pretty quiet" with few upsets. She said Tuesday night's election wasn't different from previous years with "little things happening here and there."

Though the totals seem low for Butte County, it reflects statewide turnouts. According to the secretary of state website, many California counties suffered from low voter turnout with 47 counties having no more than 40 percent voter turnout. However, there were a few exceptions such as Mono county 53.7 percent, Sierra county with 64 percent and Alpine county with 69.5 percent voter turnout.

"I expected it to be more," Grubbs said of her expectations for Butte County voters. "I thought we'd be up to 45 percent. This is one of our lowest for our primary."

Despite the need to shuffle through the remaining ballots, it is suspected that the totals for candidates will increase, but the increase may not be significant enough to change current ballot percentages.